xii, 627 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : 21 cm

Dividing the century into the Age of Catastrophe, 1914-1950, the Golden Age, 1950-1973, and the Landslide, 1973-1991, Hobsbawm marshals a vast array of data into a volume of unparalleled inclusiveness, vibrancy, and insight, a work that ranks with his classics The Age of Empire and The Age of Revolution. In the short century between 1914 and 1991, the world has been convulsed by two global wars that swept away millions of lives and entire systems of government. Communism became a messianic faith and then collapsed ignominiously. Peasants became city dwellers, housewives became workers--and, increasingly leaders. Populations became literate even as new technologies threatened to make print obsolete. And the driving forces of history swung from Europe to its former colonies

Originally published: London : M. Joseph, 1994

Includes bibliographical references (pages 587-614) and index

The age of total war -- The world revolution -- Into the economic abyss -- The fall of liberalism -- Against the common enemy -- The arts 1914-1945 -- End of empires -- Cold War -- The golden years -- The social revolution 1945-1990 -- Cultural revolution -- The third world -- R̀eal socialism' -- The crisis decades -- Third world and revolution -- End of socialism -- The avant-garde dies -- the arts after 1950 -- Sorcerers and apprentices -- the natural sciences -- Towards the millennium

The age of total war -- The world revolution -- Into the economic abyss -- The fall of liberalism -- Against the common enemy -- The arts 1914-1945 -- End of empires -- Cold War -- The golden years -- The social revolution 1945-1990 -- Cultural revolution -- The third world -- Real socialism' -- The crisis decades -- Third world and revolution -- End of socialism -- The avant-garde dies -- the arts after 1950 -- Sorcerers and apprentices -- the natural sciences -- Towards the millennium

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